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Sacred Scriptures/Liturgy- Advent
Meditation |
"Ministers of
the New Covenant of the Spirit"
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, Pontifical Household Preacher
Second Advent Sermon, 2009
www.zenit.org
1. The Service of the Spirit
Last time we commented on the definition that Paul gives of priests as
"servants of Christ." In the Second Letter to the Corinthians we find an
apparently different affirmation: he writes: "Our qualification comes
from God, who has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant,
not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit
gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone,
was so glorious that the Israelites could not look intently at the face
of Moses because of its glory that was going to fade, how much more will
the ministry of the Spirit be glorious?" (2 Corinthians 3:5-8).
Paul describes himself and his collaborators as "ministers of a new
covenant in the Spirit" and the apostolic ministry as "service (diakonia)
of the Spirit." The comparison with Moses and the worship of the ancient
covenant leaves no doubt, in fact, that in this passage, as in many
other of the same letter, he speaks of the role of the leaders in the
Christian community, namely the apostles and their collaborators.
Whoever knows the relationship that there is for Paul between Christ and
the Spirit knows that there is no contradiction, but rather perfect
continuity, between being servants of Christ and being ministers of the
Spirit. The Spirit being spoken of here is in fact the Spirit of Christ.
Jesus himself explains the role of the Paraclete in relations to him,
when he says to the apostles: He will take it from me and will proclaim
it to you, he will make you recall what I have told you, he will witness
to me.
The complete definition of the apostolic and priestly ministry is:
servants of Christ in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indicates the quality
or nature of our service which is a "spiritual" service in the strong
sense of the term; not only, that is, in the sense that it has the
spirit of man and his soul as its object, but also in the sense that it
has as its subject and "principal agent" the Holy Spirit. St. Irenaeus
says that the Holy Spirit is "our very communion with Christ."[1]
Just above, in the same Second Letter to the Corinthians, the apostle
illustrated the action of the Holy Spirit in the ministers of the New
Covenant with the symbol of anointing: "But it is God who establishes us
with you in Christ, and has anointend us; he has put his seal upon us
and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee."
St. Athanasius comments this text thus: "The Spirit is called and is
anointing and seal. [...] The anointing is the breath of the Son, so
that he who possesses the Spirit can say: 'We are the perfume of
Christ.' The seal represents Christ, so that he who is marked by the
seal is able to have the form of Christ."[2] As anointing, the Spirit
transmits to us the perfume of Christ; as seal, his form or image.
Hence, there is no dichotomy between service of Christ and service of
the Spirit, but rather profound unity.
All Christians are "anointed"; their name itself means nothing other
than this: "anointed," in the likeness of Christ, who is the Anointed
par excellence (cf. 1 John 2:20.27). However, Paul is speaking here of
his work and Timothy's ("we") as opposed to the community ("you"); it is
evident therefore that he is referring in particular to the anointing
and seal of the Spirit, received at the moment of being consecrated to
the apostolic ministry, for Timothy through the imposition of the hands
of the Apostle (cf. 2 Timothy 1:6).
We must absolutely rediscover the importance of the anointing of the
Spirit because in it, I am convinced, is enclosed the secret of the
efficacy of the episcopal and presbyterial ministry. Priests are
essentially the consecrated ones, namely, the anointed. "Our Lord Jesus
-- one reads in the 'Presbyterorum ordinis' -- whom the Father
consecrated and sent into the world (John 10:36), has made all his
Mystical Body participate in that anointing of the Spirit that he has
received." The same conciliar decree, however, hastens to put
immediately in the light the specificity of the anointing conferred by
the sacrament of Holy Orders. That is why it states that "priests, in
virtue of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are marked by a special
character that configures them to Christ the priest, so that they can
act in the name of Christ, the Head."[3]
2. Anointing: figure, event and sacrament
The anointing, as the Eucharist and Easter, is one of those realities
that are present in all the three phases of the history of salvation. It
is present, in fact, in the Old Testament as figure, in the New
Testament as event and in the time of the Church as sacrament. In our
case, the figure is given by the various anointings practiced in the Old
Testament; the event is constituted by the anointing of Christ, the
Messiah, the Anointed One, to whom all the figures tended as to their
fulfillment; the sacrament, is represented by that ensemble of
sacramental signs that include an anointing as principal and
complementary rite.
The Old Testament speaks of three types of anointing: royal, priestly
and prophetic anointing. That is, anointing of kings, of priests and of
prophets, even though in the case of prophets it is in general a
spiritual and metaphoric anointing, namely, without a material oil. In
every one of these anointings, a messianic horizon is delineated,
namely, the expectation of a king, of a priest and of a prophet who will
be the Anointed One par excellence, the Messiah.
Together with the official and juridical investiture, by which the king
becomes the Anointed of the Lord, the anointing also confers, according
to the Bible, a real interior power, it entails a transformation that
comes from God and this power, this reality is ever more clearly
identified with the Holy Spirit. In anointing Saul as king, Samuel says:
"Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel?
[...] Then the spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you, and you
shall prophesy with them and be turned into another man" (1 Samuel
10:1.6). The link between the anointing and the Spirit is above all
brought into light in the well-known text of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the
Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me" (Isaiah 61:1).
The New Testament does not hesitate to present Jesus as the Anointed One
of God, in whom all ancient anointings have found their fulfillment. The
title of Messiah, or Christ, which means in fact Anointed, is the
clearest proof of that.
The moment of historical event to which this fulfillment refers is the
baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. The effect of this anointing is the Holy
Spirit: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power (Acts 10:38); Jesus himself, immediately after his baptism, would
declare in the synagogue of Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he has anointed me" (Luke 4:18). Jesus was certainly full of
the Holy Spirit from the moment of the Incarnation, but it was a
personal grace, linked to the hypostatic union, and because of this,
incommunicable. Now, in the anointing, he received that fullness of the
Holy Spirit that, as head, he will be able to transmit to his body. The
Church lives from this capital grace (gratia capitis).
The effects of the triple anointing -- royal, prophetic and priestly --
are grandiose and immediate in the ministry of Jesus. In the strength of
the royal anointing, he brings down the kingdom of Satan and establishes
the kingdom of God: "But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out
demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:28); in
the strength of the prophetic anointing, he "proclaims the good news to
the poor"; in the strength of the priestly anointing, he offers prayers
and tears during his earthly life and in the end offers himself on the
cross.
After being present in the Old Testament as figure and in the New
Testament as event, the anointing is now present in the Church as
sacrament. The sacrament takes from the figure the sign and from the
event the meaning: it takes from the anointings of the Old Testament the
element -- the oil, the chrism or perfumed unguent -- and from Christ
the salvific efficacy. Christ was never anointed with physical oil
(apart from the anointing of Bethany), and he never anointed anyone with
physical oil. In him the symbol was replaced by the reality, by the "oil
of gladness" that is the Holy Spirit.
More than a unique sacrament, the anointing is present in the Church as
an ensemble of sacramental rites. As separate sacraments, we have the
chrismation (which through all the transformations undergone, refers, as
the name attests, to the ancient rite of anointing with chrism) and the
anointing of the sick; as part of other sacraments we have: the
baptismal anointing and the anointing in the sacrament of Holy Orders.
In the chrism anointing that follows baptism, explicit reference is made
to the triple anointing of Christ: "He himself consecrates you with the
chrism of salvation; inserted in Christ priest, king and prophet, be
always members of his body for eternal life."
Of all these anointings, of interest to us at this moment is that which
accompanies the conferring of Holy Orders. In the moment in which the
bishop anoints the palms of each of the ordained kneeling before him, he
pronounces these words: "May the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father
consecrated in the Holy Spirit and power, keep you for the
sanctification of his people and for the offering of the sacrifice."
Yet more explicit is the reference to the anointing in Christ in the
episcopal consecration. Anointing with perfumed oil the head of the new
bishop, the ordaining bishop says: "May God, who has made you share in
the high priesthood of Christ, shed upon you his mystical anointing and
with the abundance of his blessing give fruitfulness to your ministry."
3. Spiritual Anointing
There is however a risk, which is common to all the sacraments: that of
staying with the ritual or canonical aspect of ordination, with its
validity and lawfulness, and not giving enough importance to the "res
sacramenti," to the spiritual effect, to the grace itself of the
sacrament, in this case the fruit of the anointing in the life of the
priest. The sacramental anointing, enables us to carry out certain
sacred actions, such as govern, preach, instruct; we are given, so to
speak, the authorization to do certain things, not necessarily the
authority and a real power in doing it; it ensures the apostolic
succession, not necessarily apostolic success!
The sacramental anointing, with the indelible character (the "seal"!)
which it imprints in the priest, is a resource for which we can reach
every time we feel the need, that we can, so to speak, activate in every
moment of our ministry. We know from our theology the idea of the
“reviviscence” of a sacrament. A sacrament, received in the past, comes
anew to life (reviviscit) and emit its grace, in some cases because the
obstacle of sin (the obex) is removed, in other cases because the patina
of habit is taken away and faith is intensified. It happens as with a
bottle of perfume. We can keep it in our pocket or clutch it in our hand
as long as we want but if we do not open it the perfume is not spread,
it is as if it was not.
When and how did this idea of an actual anointing appear? An important
stage is constituted, once again, by Augustine. He interprets the text
of the First Letter of John: "The anointing which you received teaches
you everything" (cf. 1 John 2:27), in the sense of a continuous
anointing, thanks to which the Holy Spirit, as an interior teacher,
enables us to understand within what we hear from without. From
Augustine comes the expression "spiritual anointing," spiritalis unctio,
contained in the hymn Veni creator.[4] As in many other things, Saint
Gregory the Great, contributed to rendering popular, for the whole of
the Middle Ages, this Augustinian intuition.[5]
A new phase in the development of the subject of anointing opens with
Saint Bernard and Saint Bonaventure. Affirmed with them is the new
meaning, spiritual and modern of anointing, not linked so much to the
topic of knowledge of the truth, but to that of the experience of the
divine reality. Beginning to comment on the Canticle of Canticles, Saint
Bernard says: "Only anointing teaches such a canticle, only experience
makes it understood."[6] St. Bonaventure identifies anointing with
devotion, conceived by him as "a gentle feeling of love towards God
awakened by the memory of the benefits of Christ."[7] It does not depend
on nature, or on science, or on words or books, but "on the gift of God
who is the Holy Spirit."[8]
Used ever more often in our days are the terms anointed and anointing to
describe the behavior of a person, the quality of an address, of a
homily, but with a difference of accent. In traditional language,
anointing suggests, as we have seen, above all the idea of gentleness
and sweetness, so much so as to give place, in the profane use, to the
negative accession of speech or a mellifluous and insinuating attitude,
often hypocritical, and to the adjective "unctuous," in the sense of
"person or attitude unpleasantly ceremonious and servile."
In the modern use, closer to the biblical one, the anointing suggests
rather the idea of power and force of persuasion. A speech full of
unction is a speech in which is perceived, so to speak, the throb of the
Spirit; a proclamation that reaches people's heart and convinces one of
sin. It is an exquisitely biblical component of the term, present for
example in the text of Acts in which it is said that Jesus "was anointed
with the Holy Spirit and with power" (Acts 10:38).
The anointing, in this sense, seems more like an act than a state. It is
something that the person does not possess permanently, but that comes
on the person, "invests" him at the moment, in the exercise of a certain
ministry or in prayer.
If the anointing is given by the presence of the Spirit and is his gift,
what can we do to have it? Above all pray. It is an explicit promise of
Jesus: "the heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him!" (Luke 11:13). Then we also should break the alabaster jar as the
sinful woman in Simon's house. The jar is our I, at times our arid
intellectualism. To break it means to deny oneself, to give over to God,
with an explicit act, the reins of our life. God cannot give his Spirit
to one who does not give himself wholly to Him.
4. How to obtain the anointing of the Spirit
Let us apply to the life of the priest this very rich biblical and
theological content linked to the subject of anointing. Saint Basil says
that the Holy Spirit "was always present in the life of the Lord,
becoming his anointing and inseparable companion," so much so that "all
of Christ's activity unfolded in the Spirit."[9] To have the anointing
therefore means to have the Holy Spirit as "inseparable companion" in
life, to do everything "in the Spirit," in his presence, with his
guidance. This entails a certain passivity, a being activated, moved or
as Paul says, a letting oneself to be "led by the Spirit" (cf. Galatians
5:18).
All this is translated, on the outside, now in softness, calm, peace,
sweetness, devotion, emotion, now in authority, force, power,
authoritativeness, according to the circumstances, the character of each
one and also the office held. The living example is Jesus who, moved by
the Spirit, manifests himself gentle and humble of heart, but also,
according to the moment, full of divine authority. It is a condition
characterized by a certain interior luminosity which gives facility and
mastery in doing things. Somewhat as "form" is for the athlete and
inspiration for the poet: a state in which one succeeds in giving the
best of oneself.
We priests should make it a habit to request the anointing of the Spirit
before setting about an important action at the service of the kingdom:
a decision to be taken, an appointment to be made, a document to write,
a commission to preside over, a homily to prepare. I came to it at my
expense. At times, I have found myself having to speak to a large
auditorium, in a foreign language, often just having arrived from a long
trip. Total darkness. The language in which I had to speak it seemed to
me I had never known, I was unable to concentrate on a scheme, a topic.
And the initial hymn was about to end ... Then I remembered the
anointing and in haste I made a brief prayer: "Father, in the name of
Christ, I ask you for the anointing of the Spirit!"
At times, the effect is immediate. One feels almost physically the
coming on oneself of the anointing. A certain emotion goes through the
body, clarity of mind, serenity of soul, exhaustion, nervousness
disappear, as do every fear and every timidity; one experiences
something of the calm and the authority itself of God.
I think that many of my prayers, as those of every Christian, remain
unheard, except for this one for anointing. It seems that before God we
have a sort of right to claim it. At times I even take advantage of this
possibility. For example, if I must speak of Jesus Christ, I make a
secret covenant with God the Father, without letting Jesus know, and I
say: "Father, I must speak of your Son Jesus that you so love: give me
the anointing of your Spirit to reach the heart of the people." If I
must speak of God the Father, I do the contrary: I make a secret
agreement with Jesus ... The doctrine of the Trinity is wonderful also
for this.
5. Anointed to spread in the world the good odor of Christ
In the same context of 2 Corinthians, the Apostle, always referring to
the apostolic ministry, develops the metaphor of anointing with that of
the perfume which is its effect; he writes: "But thanks be to God, who
in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the
fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of
Christ to God" (2 Corinthians 14:15).
This is what the priest should be: the good perfume of Christ in the
world! But the Apostle puts us on guard, adding immediately after: "But
we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (2 Corinthians 4:7). In the
end we know too well, from the recent painful and humiliating
experience, what all this means. Jesus said to the Apostles: "You are
the salt of the earth; But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be
seasoned? t is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot" (Matthew 5:13). The truth of this word of Christ is
painfully before our eyes. Also the anointing, if it loses its odor and
is spoiled, transforms itself into its contrary, into stench and,
instead of attracting to Christ, it alienates from him.
Also to respond to this situation the Holy Father has proclaimed the
present Year of Priests. He says so openly in the letter written for the
occasion: "There are also, sad to say, situations which can never be
sufficiently deplored where the Church herself suffers as a consequence
of infidelity on the part of some of her ministers. Then it is the world
which finds grounds for scandal and rejection."
The Pope's letter does not stop with this observation; it adds in fact:
"What is most helpful to the Church in such cases is not only a frank
and complete acknowledgment of the weaknesses of her ministers, but also
a joyful and renewed realization of the greatness of God’s gift,
embodied in the splendid example of generous pastors, religious afire
with love for God and for souls, and insightful, patient spiritual
guides."
The revelation of the weaknesses is also necessary, to render justice to
the victims, and the Church now recognizes it and acts as best she can,
but it must be done in other moment; in every case, it is not from it
that the impulse will come for a renewal of the priestly ministry. I
have thought of this series of meditations on the priesthood precisely
as a small contribution in the sense desired by the Holy Father. I would
like to make my Seraphic Father Saint Francis speak in my place. At a
time in which the moral situation of the clergy was without a doubt
sadder than today's, he wrote in his Testament:
"The Lord gave me and gives me so much faith in priests who live
according to the way of the Holy Roman Church, because of their
ordination, that if they were to persecute me I would take recourse to
them. And if I had so much wisdom, as Solomon had, and I found myself a
poor priest in this world, in the parishes where they live, I would not
wish to preach against their will. And these and all the others I wish
to fear, love and honor as my lords. And I do this because, from the
most High Son of God I see nothing else physically in this world other
than his most holy Body and blood which they alone consecrate and they
alone administer to others."
In the text quoted in the beginning, Paul speaks of the "glory" of the
ministers of the New Covenant of the Spirit, immensely higher than the
ancient one. This glory does not come from men and cannot be destroyed
by men. St. John-Mary Vianney certainly spread around him the good odor
of Christ and it was because of this that the crowds ran to Ars; closer
to us, Padre Pio of Pietrelcina spread the perfume of Christ, at times
even a physical perfume, as was attested by innumerable persons worthy
of faith. So many priests, unknown by the world, are in their
environment the good odor of Christ and of the Gospel. The "Country
Priest" of Bernanos has innumerable companions spread around the world,
in the city no less than in the country.
Father Lacordaire sketched a profile of the Catholic priest, which today
might seem a bit too optimistic and idealized, but to rediscover the
ideal and the enthusiasm for the priestly ministry is precisely the
thing that is most needed at this moment. Let us listen therefore to him
again at the conclusion of the present meditation:
"To live in the midst of the world without any desire for its pleasures;
to be a member of every family, without belonging to any of them; to
share every suffering, to be made a part of every secret, heal every
wound; to go every day from men to God to offer Him their devotion and
their prayers, and to turn from God to men to take to them his
forgiveness and his hope; to have a heart of steel for chastity and a
heart of flesh for charity; to teach and forgive, console and bless and
to be blessed forever. O God, what kind of life is ever like this? It is
your life, o priest of Jesus Christ!"[10]
--- --- ---
Notes
[1] Saint Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. III, 24, 1.
[2] Saint Athanasius, Letter to Serapion, III, 3 )PG 26, 628 f.).
[3] PO, 1, 2.
[4] Saint Augustine, On the First Letter of John, 3, 5 (PL 35, 2000);
cf. 3, 12 (PL 35, 2004).
[5] Cf. Saint Augustine, On the First Letter of John, 3, 13 (PL 35, 2004
f.); cf. Saint Gregory the Great, Homilies on the Gospel, 30, 3 (PL 76,
1222).
[6] Saint Bernard, On the Canticle, I, 6, 11 (Cistercian publications,
I, Rome, 1957, p. 7).
[7] Saint Bonaventure, IV, d. 23, a. 1, q. 1 (ed. Quaracchi, IV, p.
589); Sermon III on Saint Mary Magdalen (ed. Quaracchi, IX, p. 561).
[8] Ibidem, VII, 5.
[9] Saint Basil, On the Holy Spirit, XVI, 39 (PG 32, 140C).
[10] H. Lacordaire, quoted by D. Rice, Shattered Vows, The Blackstaff
Press, Belfast, 1990, p. 137.
[Translation by ZENIT]
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